Originally Posted by
dejapoo
Sorry laziness or stupidness? Bet your punters love flying with you.
You think running a tank dry in flight is stupid? I'm not quite sure what you're getting at. Every aircraft certified under FAR 23 is
required to be able to regain power within 10 seconds (20 if turbocharged or multi engine) if you run a tank dry. Granted a lot of existing GA aircraft are certified under the likes of CAR3 so FAR23 doesn't apply, but even so, running a tank dry in flight is nothing to be scared of and was normal operation when going for maximum range before turbines came along... I
do tell the passenger what's going to happen well in advance, so they can ignore the FUEL QUANTITY warnings in the headset and EFIS and thus far everyone's been like "
Is that it? No gliding to our death, no MAYDAY, that's all that happens?!?" after the fact.
Originally Posted by Cloudee
Not something I would choose to do. When I change tanks I’m on alert for a few minutes in case there is a blockage or other issue with the selected tank. If there is I can switch back, you can’t. I prefer to have options.
Why would the original tank fail to feed? It got me to TOC. If the opposite tank (let's call it the cruise tank) fails to feed on selection, I still have the original tank to either get me partway, or return to the departure airport to work out
why the cruise tank isn't feeding. If someone's worried about a tank failing to feed after switching, you're better off minimising the number of times you
do change tanks...
You're more at risk inadvertently running a tank dry trying to keep up with this 'balance it every 30 minutes' ideology, or un-porting a low tank manoeuvring on arrival because you've got your remaining minimum fuel spread across 2/4 tanks with 5-10L in each instead of 20+L one. As I said above, this isn't a one-size-fits all, and as
PC alludes to above, low-aspect ratio wings such as the Warriors have a greater trim requirements than does an aircraft with higher aspect ratio and the fuel inboard on the wing, and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for a tip-tanked Bonanza or Comanche unless you want to look like Popeye when you land.
Originally Posted by PiperCameron
Is this in a PA-28 - or something else? Maybe your aircraft has aileron trim??
It's an RV-9 and it does have aileron trim, though I don't use it much as it's only a spring-bias system, not a true aerodynamic tab. In several hundred hours of flying this way, I've never had the EFIS complain about roll forces being too high for the servo, or any servo slippage. Even when hand flying, it
is noticeable, but not unpleasantly, or even
uncomfortably so.
It's not everyone's cup of tea, and nor is running a tank dry, but it's how
I do it, and for the accident in question, I feel comfortable saying I'm unlikely to make that same mistake on account of
how I do things. Other mistakes, most definitely, but not
this one. YMMV.